Top Five Professional Careers in Scuba Diving

By Felix Tero

Scuba diving is not a regular sport or recreational activity. In fact, advanced and specialty courses in open circuit scuba diving have opened doors to established professional careers that require technical, underwater diving expertise. Engineers, scientists and environmentalists are also acquiring scuba diving skills to meet the demands of their occupation. The article lists a few professions that require scuba diving in the course of work.

1. Underwater Engineering. Professional divers perform engineering work in lieu of the exploration and production activities of the oil industry. The job takes advantage of the skills of a scuba diver for the maintenance of submerged oil platforms. Civil engineering projects also hire professional scuba divers for the conduct of underwater surveys or when building harbors and bridges.

2. Marine Biological Research. Scientists engaged in this field of scientific study submit to extensive scuba diving training to be able to conduct underwater research, particularly on the biodiversity of marine life. Meanwhile, environmentalists have also found scuba diving skills to be relevant in the protection of marine habitats; where frequent scuba diving is performed for the conduct of clean-up projects and periodic reef surveys.

3. HAZMAT Diving. Short for hazardous materials diving, this is regarded as the most dangerous type of professional diving. The environmental conditions pertinent to the job pose a great health risk to the scuba diver. For this reason, employment is limited to highly skilled and experienced scuba divers who should likewise be in excellent physical state. For this type of diving, scuba divers go through a series of pre-medication treatments and are geared up only in specialized scuba equipment. Decontamination following work in polluted waters is also required. HAZMAT diving is commonly performed to repair pipelines, recover bodies and lost objects, and for the purpose of underwater pollution control as well.

4. Underwater Photography and Film Making. Television and film producers invest part of their budgets to shoot underwater footages that may be relevant to a movie or documentary on production. Now this activity requires the services of professional scuba divers. This is one of the many jobs available that recreational divers can easily take on to earn extra income out of their scuba diving skills.

5. Military, Navy and Police. The military and navy likewise train their personnel in the conduct of offensive operations such as underwater infiltration and demolition. In this case, scuba diving is significant in the recovery of underwater evidence for police profiling.

With the range of career options mentioned, learning how to scuba dive will come in handy to one intending to make scuba diving as an occupation. If you are planning to take recreational scuba diving to the next level (as a profession), invest on good quality scuba equipment. Start with the H2Odyssey Thruster Open Heel Fins which is designed to make you move swiftly underwater using minimal leg strokes.

Felix Tero produces web content for Scuba Suppliers, Inc. Get the scuba equipment that's right for you at Scuba Suppliers

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